SCARBOROUGH / STORY
OF A RABBIT
Assembly @ George Street / Pleasance
Courtyard, Edinburgh
August, 2007
**** / ****
Every year a number of Fringe shows decide to conspicuously refuse to
compete in terms of grand scale, glitzy production values or the like.
This year you can see Fringe regular Julian Fox continue his
characteristic deadpan, is-this-guy-for-real strain of dada banality in
You've Got To Love Dancing To Stick
To It (Pleasance Courtyard), whereas a little distance away
Chris Goode, who made his Edinburgh name with beautifully intimate
productions that visited your own home, is this year reading out
messages posted online in the genuine Hippo
World Guest Book (Pleasance Dome) as a testimony to how a dream
can be tainted and fade.
One of the most endearing examples is, as you might suspect, far less
ramshackle than it looks. Story Of A
Rabbit is a performance by Hugh Hughes, alias Shôn
Dale-Jones of the Hoipolloi company, much in the manner of his Floating which played here last
year (and returns briefly next week) and which I reviewed at the
Barbican this spring. The new piece muses on the deaths of a
neighbour's pet rabbit and Hughes' own father, whilst making deeper
points about the ways in which we are simultaneously individuals and a
collective. Once again, the magic glue which holds things together is
Hughes' lovable openness; he makes an immediate and warm contact with
his audience, so that we feel he is sharing with us rather than
presenting to us.
Perhaps the most impressive midget gem, though, is Scarborough. Its three performances
each day play to around 20 people each; for this 40-minute window on to
the end of an affair between a boy just turning 16 and his 29-year-old
teacher is played in a space which has been turned into a perfect
replica of an undistinguished bed & breakfast hotel room in which
they are supposedly spending the weekend; we line the walls or perch
where possible, seldom more than six feet from the actors. Technical
effects are run discreetly from a corner, with a staff tech hitting an
iPod control to play the rock songs which punctuate the scenes. Holly
Atkins and in particular James Baxter turn in riveting performances in
this finely crafted miniature by Fiona Evans, who has progressed from
working in the Assembly press office to having a play staged in the
venue.
Written for the Financial
Times.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights
reserved.
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